wine + words = wisdom?

Resolved

We’re two weeks into January – rocketing towards this 2016 thing – and I think a little each day about how people receive the gift of a new year.

Most who know me know that my household is one filled with food, wine, cheese, more wine, desserts, dessert wines, and other bacchanalia. For all of my adult life I have been in a restaurant based job where the objective has been to take food to people to make them happy and satisfied. And for the most part, the food + wine = happiness equation works out! Conversations start to flow. Smiles spread wider. Songs are sung louder. Hugs are hugged longer. I love watching this process and I love even more being a part of it. It really is the essence of life. That being said, you can see how dieting is never a resolution for me.

How about more exercise? While I do admire the committed running habit that my sleek counterpart (sauce) keeps, I allow myself no delusions and fully recognize that my fitness routines are much more sporadic. If I must be resolved to make an improvement it is usually more inwardly focused than out. This is something I encourage even the body image resolution makers to include into their routines – and most will see that an examination of their inside is just as challenging as transforming the outside. There are fewer benchmarks to follow and the goals are not as measurable but when you start to get results you will be glad of that. While each of us aim to reach a certain number of inches or pounds or minutes and seconds – none of us aims to count the number of laughs or hugs or tears of joy we’ve had as those should all be infinite.

And so for 2016, I’m resolved to:

be less busy and more productive

talk less and say more

disconnect to reconnect

have a really good laugh

be authentic

“get it together”

And to start checking off my list, I’m going to go finish up making dining reservations and tasting appointments for the coming weekend in Napa & Sonoma!